Like I always say, it does not matter how you got the job. It’s how good you are at keeping it. Take the case of “vice president” Leni Robredo. She is evidently not smart enough to keep any of her jobs. She had early in her term already gotten herself booted out of a Cabinet post in the then new government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Today, she is again on the verge of losing another high-profile post.
While Duterte hasn’t fired her yet. He already told the media that Robredo cannot be trusted with sensitive information and had confirmed that she is not part of his Cabinet nor will she ever be within his inner circle of trust. According to Duterte is a threat to National Security. He is right, because first on her agenda after being appointed as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) was to meet with foreign officials from the United States and the United Nations to discuss what are essentially matters that the Philippine government is perfectly capable of handling internally.
Even before Duterte expressed his dismay, I had already pointed out that it was not right for Robredo to be consulting foreigners about local issues they have know business meddling in. This habit of Robredo is what likely attracted the ire of officials she should have been working with more closely first.
If Robredo cannot earn the trust of her colleagues in government, much more the trust of her boss, what good is Robredo? Everybody knows at least one of those sorts at work — that guy who thinks he knows it all, that princess who thinks she is more important than everyone else, or that “management trainee” who thinks he is a hotshot on Week Two on the job. Leni Robredo encapsulates all that.
Strike Two is the score as far as Robredo’s leadership track record goes so far (perhaps not counting her catastrophic failure to lead her Otso Diretso coalition to electoral victory this year). Robredo should reflect on her failures. There is still time for her to step up and recast herself as the leader of a real Opposition — one that could earn the trust of the Filipino people.
Too bad for Leni and her supporters because she f*cked up big time again. She had the golden opportunity to prove she can be the next president but ultimately proved that she cannot command respect from the police and career diplomats because she is clueless and full of herself.
In life, things are not always what they seem.